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DJ Henry's parents, Danroy Henry Sr. and Angela Henry, joined the Emily Rooney Show on Wednesday to discuss their ongoing search for the truth about what happened when their son was shot and killed by a New York policeman last fall. (Jess Bidgood/WGBH)

A New York grand jury has declined to indict police officers in the shooting death of 20-year-old Danroy Henry.

The Pace University football player from Easton, Massachusetts, was shot by a police officer in Westchester County on October 17, as he drove away from a restaurant in a New York City suburb.

DJ Henry in a family photo. (Courtesy)

Presented with testimony from 85 witnesses, as well as forensic evidence, the Westchester County district attorney said jurors found no reasonable cause for an indictment in the death of 20-year-old Danroy Henry Jr., of Easton, Mass. District Attorney, Janet DiFiore said in a statement that the grand jury had made "an exhaustive and thorough review of the evidence".

Henry, known to his friends as DJ, died from wounds inflicted by police officers who fired through the windshield of his car as he drove away from a popular eatery and bar in the New York City suburb of Thornwood. Henry’s childhood friend, 20-year-old Brandon Cox, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was wounded when police opened fire.

Harvard Attorney Charles Ogletree, who is representing Cox, said the grand jury’s decision contravenes credible evidence. And he says they will now turn to the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division for injunctive relief.

"We think and we’ve said consistently that there should be some federal intervention to insure a fair legal process. Cops can’t judge themselves by going to their district attorney in their city in Mt. Pleasant and get what we believe is a fair and objective determination," Ogletree said.

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"As the Henry family has said, and the Parks and Cox (families) from the beginning, we want the truth," Ogletree said.

It’s not clear if the federal government will intervene, but officials are well aware of the case. Ogletree also says the racial dimensions of this incident cannot be overlooked. DJ Henry was black. The police officers involved are white.

DJ Henry's father told WGBH he was not surprised by the grand jury’s decision. But, he said, he is disappointed. Meanwhile, the family has announced a multi-million dollar civil lawsuit against the two Westchester Country police departments, which officers were involved in the October 17th shooting.

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Listen: DJ Henry's parents, Danroy Henry Sr. and Angela Henry, joined The Emily Rooney Show to discuss their ongoing search for the truth about their son's death.

BOSTON — Would you rather be numb or alive to a dangerous situation? Numbness is that ethereal place where our minds are set to a default. Where nothingness pervades our mind, even when threatening stimuli recur. This is the American psyche, numbed out on war.

The Afghanistan War started nine long years ago. In this span of time, I got a new job, had a child, and sent him to elementary school. Over 2,000 people have died, Taliban insurgencies have increased, and I still can’t tell my child that Osama Bin Laden is no longer a threat to him.

We can’t imagine America without this war even though we have done almost everything possible to eliminate terrorism -- except for declare peace.

War is not, nor should it ever be, a status quo.

Almost a year ago, President Obama deployed an additional thirty thousand troops to Afghanistan. He did so even though our nation was fighting an economic war of massive proportions, when war funds could have been used to extend unemployment benefits or cut into our national debt.

July 2011 was the original target date that President Obama suggested for a drawdown of troops. Now, the administration is developing a plan to transfer security duties to Afghan forces, with combat missions ending by 2014.

President Karzai wants an immediate decrease in military operations in Afghanistan. A bipartisan report sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and backed by military experts says that we should consider dramatically cutting troops unless progress can be made.

But now we may be in Afghanistan until 2014.

That would bring this war to a total of 13 years. More deaths and injuries should be expected. And the impact on our national budget will be felt for decades to come.

When we are numb, we can’t remember if it matters to be rational in the face of danger or death. But if we are truly alive, which is a privilege of those of us not on the battlefield, we can take the important and powerfully clear stand of insisting our government end this war. Not in 2014, but right now.

It’s time to snap out of numbness. War is not, nor should it ever be, status quo.

Phillip MartinPhillip W. D. Martin is the senior investigative reporter for WGBH Radio News and executive producer for Lifted Veils Productions. In the past, he was a supervising senior editor for NPR, an NPR race relations correspondent and one of the senior producers responsible for creating The World radio program in 1995. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in 1998. Learn more at liftedveils.org.